Classes and maybe a DE conference

You have a great idea for a sewn product and want to know how to get someone else to make it for you so you can start on the next idea.

You had a great idea for a sewn product and you had someone or some company make up a bunch for you but something went wrong. Something keeps going wrong. You want to stop wasting money and learn the rules of the game.

You have a great idea and now you want to get it out of your head and into the hands of someone who can produce it for you.

Classes begin December 11 and will be ongoing. The class is $95. Email Shauna for more information or call 512-326-3393.

Coming on the heels of Shauna’s classes, on December 16th and 17th in Austin, I will be doing two half day seminars. Shauna and I are still working out the details but the seminars will be non-structured and flexible with open-ended questions from participants guiding the discussion. Participants (maximum of 20) are encouraged to bring products and patterns in for review. Each session is $75. Also TBA is a dinner and social get together on Saturday night. I will also need a running partner for my Saturday morning training run. Email me if you’re interested in a 10-15 mile run around Town Lake. Speaking of, I’m still soliciting donations to support me in the marathon I’m doing for Leukemia research (all donations are tax deductible).

Sarah Fosdick, owner of Design Tech Apparel in Oregon is interested in developing a weekend long fashion-incubator conference. She writes:

My idea is to put on a hotel conference. It would start on Friday evening, and end on Sunday at noon, with day-long schedules of one or two hour workshops. We would have expert lectures, open discussions and technical demonstrations, with the highlight being a lecture / q&a with Kathleen. I have offered to organize the conference and donate the proceeds (minus expenses) to Kathleen to help support the site if we hold it in Portland, Oregon. It could be held at the McMenamins Edgefield, a very cool yet inexpensive hotel with conference facilities. (around $50 per night). If you would like to attend a weekend conference such as this, please let her know! Suggestions are appreciated. Also, I have a pretty basic grasp of event planning, but if any of you out there are pro’s and want to take on the project, that would be great too! The point is to help keep the site alive and bring us all together to learn and have fun.

Still to be determined are the specifics of session topics and presenters. If there is sufficient interest, we could end up making the event into a convention of sorts but there would be less hands-on but still plenty of opportunities for learning as I expect some of you could present topics and seminars too or even host round table discussions on a variety of topics. Who knows, maybe we could get Miracle and Zoe to show up too although I haven’t discussed it with either of them yet.

If you’re interested in forming or working on a steering committee to develop this idea, please so state in comments. Similarly, it wouldn’t necessarily have to be held in Oregon but we have a logistical volunteer in the area and as you know, that can make all the difference in the world. If you have ideas or another proposal, please so state in comments. Thanks.

[amended 11/18/07] Removal of a CAD class mention, posted for someone in LA. Word has it the service was dramatically overpriced and I never heard back from this person either.

There will be a three day conference for DEs -with workshops– next June 13-15 2008. It’ll be our first annual get together. Like the event we had at Mike’s place Nov 2nd 2007, spaces will fill up fast so do not expect to have a chance to sign up later or that you’ll be reminded ad infinitum with plenty of time in advance. If interested, see the thread in the forumnow and post your interest there because there won’t be nearly enough slots available. Once we officially nail down the details, we’ll give our crowd a week to make reservations and pay a deposit. After that, we’re doing a press release so I don’t expect any openings to last.

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Kathleen started production patternmaking in 1981. Starting in 1993, she began providing consulting and engineering services to manufacturers, small companies, and startups with an emphasis on developing owner-operator domestic cut-and-sew operations. In 2015 she opened a 5,000 sqft. fully equipped sewing factory: The Sewing Factory School. Kathleen is the author of The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Sewn Product Manufacturing, the most highly rated book of any topic in the garment industry. She's been mentioned numerous times in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, National Public Radio, Boston Globe, LA Times, Vogue, French Vogue and has at least 15 Project Runway alums at last count. Kathleen writes nearly all of the articles on Fashion-Incubator.com and hosts its forum, the largest private online community for apparel manufacturers on the web.

I love the idea of a weekend conference. I’ve had experience in event planning and coordination, plus have a lot of great suggestions on speakers and topics. Let me know what the next step is and how I can help.

I cannot do 12/11 or 12/16 and 17… Aloha.. I am off ot Maui for Christmas… yepper!!

However, I would love to participate in Portland… and maybe I could get to Maryhill Museum to see the Theatre de la Mode mannequins, too.

I support this idea of weekend or three day conferences very much and if time permits in the future, perhaps, I can help to organize a weekend in El Paso or Las Cruces so Kathleen can teach without the travel… who knows… I think the future is bright for us.

Thanks for your ideas. I think the workshops need to be long enough to be useful. I gave a skirt patternmaking workshop in Dallas this past weekend. We had 1.5 hours and it was good but 3 hours would have been perfect.

I think I called Sarah Fosdick one time an asked her for some advice. I would like to attend these events, but I cant right now Im in school. Kathleen you would have a really good time in Portland, Ore. Loads of vegitarian places to eat at. Portland is a very outdoorsy city. Iam from Portland.

i’d be interested in the weekend retreat for sure- probably couldn’t offer much help in terms of organizing, as i have a hard enough time keeping my own life jumbled together, but i think portland would be awesome, mcminnimins is beautiful. i can’t figure out how to contact sarah directly, though.

Hi Kathleen, I am definately interested in a workshop in Portland. I live up in NW Wa. state and I am interested in anything in the Seattle. Wa or Portland, Or. cities. If anyone knows of other classes and events in this part of the country I would like to hear about them. Thanks! Pat Lundin Friday Harbor, WA

I would LOVE to attend something like the proposed weekend conference in Oregon and I’m certain my partner would want to come as well.

December is not good for us as we will be very busy both fulfilling orders – we sell our stuff directly from our web site (I know you say not to do that, but we are tiny and just starting out) and there are always last minute orders – and making up stock for a big sale we take part in on the secone weekend of January.

I would like to attent the event in Portland. I also have a suggestion, for those who can not attend the workshops can be vodeotaped/DVDed and they can purchase tapes. This is what we do at big West Cost Swing dance events and it works fine.

I can’t believe I missed this post until today! I would be so psyched to be a part of this event in Portland and would be available to help with planning on a small scale. At the very least I could help promote it. Yay!!

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Often described as the garment industry “blue book,” Kathleen's book is the most highly rated guide to the business. The Entrepreneur's Guide to Sewn Product Manufacturing is guaranteed to get you off to a solid start or your money back. Many service providers will require you to read it before they’ll work with you.